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World Tag Team Championship
The World Tag Team Championship was the original professional wrestling world tag team championship in the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) promotion. It served as the only title for tag teams in the promotion until the then-World Wrestling Federation (WWF) introduced the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) brand in March 2001, which added their own tag team championship. Both titles were unified in November 2001, retiring WCW's championship and continuing WWF's. In 2002, the company was renamed WWE. Following the introduction of the WWE brand extension, where wrestlers and championships became exclusive to a WWE brand, the World Tag Team Championship became exclusive to the Raw brand, while a second WWE Tag Team Championship was established for the SmackDown brand. Both titles were unified in 2009 into the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship", but remained independently active until the World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in 2010 in favor of continuing the newer championship. The championship was contested in professional wrestling matches. The inaugural champions were The Dudley Boyz, and the final champions were The Hart Dynasty. History In March 2001, the WWF introduced the World Championship Wrestling (WCW) brand with its own championships now defended on WWF programming. Soon after, "The Invasion" took place in which WCW was ultimately dismantled. At the 2001 Survivor Series pay-per-view, the title was unified with the WCW Tag Team Championship in a steel cage match. Then-WCW Tag Team Champions, The Dudley Boyz, defeated then-WWF Tag Team Champions, The Hardy Boyz, and were named the last WCW Tag Team Champions, as that title was deactivated, while becoming the new WWF Tag Team Champions. After the WWF/WWE name change in 2002, the championship was subsequently renamed to "WWE Tag Team Championship". During the initial WWE brand extension, the WWE Tag Team Championship was assigned to the SmackDown! brand as the reigning champions at the time of the initial expansion, Billy and Chuck, were both drafted to SmackDown! together. In July of that year, shortly after defeating Hulk Hogan and Edge for the titles, the reigning champion team of Lance Storm and Christian (The Un-Americans) left SmackDown! for Raw, leaving SmackDown! without a tag team title. As a result, then-SmackDown! General Manager Stephanie McMahon commissioned a new tag team title, also called the WWE Tag Team Championship, to be the exclusive tag team titles for the SmackDown! brand. With the introduction of the World Heavyweight Championship on the Raw brand after the WWE Championship became exclusive to SmackDown!, the WWE Tag Team Championship on Raw was renamed to "World Tag Team Championship". This was done so that the names of both tag team titles would mirror the names of the top championships on their respective brands. When the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship switched brands during the 2005 WWE draft lottery, however, neither of the tag team titles were renamed. In late 2008 through early 2009, then-WWE Tag Team Champions The Colóns (Carlito and Primo) engaged in rivalry with then-World Tag Team Champions John Morrison and The Miz, with the two teams exchanging victories in non-title matches and retaining their respective titles against each other. On the March 17 episode of ECW on Syfy, it was announced that at WrestleMania X, both teams would defend their titles against each other and the winning team would hold both titles. The Colóns defeated Morrison and Miz, and thus unified the titles into the "Unified WWE Tag Team Championship", although both championships remained independently active. As the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear and defend the titles on any WWE brand, regardless of the brand that the holders belonged to. On August 16, 2010, the World Tag Team Championship was decommissioned in favor of continuing the lineage of the WWE Tag Team Championship (which dropped the "unified" moniker), following Bret Hart's presentation of new championship belts to then and final World Tag Team Champions, The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd). Brand designation Following the events of the WWE brand extension, an annual WWE draft was established, in which select members of the WWE roster were reassigned to a different brand. After the World Tag Team Championship was unified with the WWE Tag Team Championship as the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship, the champions could appear and defend the titles on any WWE brand. Reigns ]] Main article: List of World Tag Team Champions The inaugural champions were The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley). The record for longest reign was held by The Spirit Squad, whose first reign lasted 216 days. The team with the shortest reign is Edge and Christian. On March 19, 2001, Edge and Christian defeated The Hardy Boyz to win the titles only to lose them later that night to The Dudley Boyz. The Dudley Boyz held the record for most reigns as a team with eight. Edge held the record for overall reigns as an individual with twelve, seven of which were with Christian. He also won the titles with Hulk Hogan, Chris Benoit, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho (after the titles were unified). The final champions were The Hart Dynasty (David Hart Smith and Tyson Kidd), who won the titles from ShoMiz (Big Show and The Miz) on the April 26, 2010 episode of Raw. After the World Tag Team Championship was deactivated, the duo continued to serve as the WWE Tag Team Champions until their loss at Night of Champions on September 19, 2010 to Drew McIntyre and Cody Rhodes. Category:Tag team championship Category:Retired championship